Hello

My name is Kya Hadley. I am from Ogden and attended Weber High. I work as the office manager for my family's landscaping company and I'm also the program director and coach of a competitive cheerleading program. I have been married for six years to my high school sweet heart.

We had our first baby on May 2nd and we named her Swayzee Jane, Sway for short. She is the most precious little baby and I am so happy to be her mom. But going to school full time, working two jobs, interning and taking care of a newborn is quite challenging sometimes.

I have been going to school since I graduated high school in 2008. I began taking pre-dental courses and completed about 75 percent of the program when I decided it wasn't for me. It took a long time to admit that I wasn't interested in the dental field anymore; I had been planning on going to dental school ever since I can remember. But I was completely miserable and needed a fresh start.

I began researching different programs at Weber State and came across PR. I had a friend who studied PR at Weber and was currently the Public Relations practitioner of a Dental office. So I decided to pick her brain. She was so passionate about what she was doing that it got me really excited. I signed up for classes the next semester and it was the best decision I ever made.

I can't even begin to tell you how different science and communications classes are. I use to go to class, sit in a room with upwards of 100 students and take notes quietly. I was completely caught off guard when I took my first communication class. People were actually talking to each other, and the professors encouraged it. It took me a while to warm up to this new style of learning, but I can honestly say that I have learned so much more by participating in the lecture rather than just taking notes.

Although juggling a new life as a mom and being a working student is hard work, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel because this is my last semester. I will be graduating in December with a Bachelor's degree in Public Relations and Advertising. I am lucky enough to say that I already have a job lined up once I graduate. This summer I interned for the Pediatric Care of Ogden and they offered me a permanent position in December.

I'm so looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life. I can't explain how excited I am to have my daughter attend my graduation. I will be the very first person in my family who will graduate from college and I hope I can be an example to my little girl. I want to show her that hard work does pay off and not to be afraid to follow your dreams.

I'm not really sure what life will be like without homework and sleepless nights of studying, but I can honestly say that I am excited to find out. 

Kacie Chappell

My name is Kacie Chappell. I am the blonde the picture, and the man to my left is my husband Shadd. I am 23 years old and am have only a year and 3 months left and I should be completing my degree. Which is great news as I am so ready to be done with school! Not that I do not enjoy learning, I just am so ready to have a completed degree. 

I am currently working on my Communications: PR and Advertising degree, and am looking to advance in the company I currently work for which is Campus Book Rentals, or working for a non-profit in Public Relations. I would love to work for the Human Society or anywhere dealing with animals. I started my college career at Utah State University, at that time I was pursuing a degree in Pre-Veterinary studies. I decided I hated science classes and switched to the Journalism/Communication program at USU. I lived in Logan for two years. I loved going to school there, but I do not miss the winters.  I then transferred to Weber to start a job in West Haven, UT. 

I live in Morgan, UT with my husband and my beagle, Corona. I plan on adding another puppy to the mix when I graduate which should keep things interesting, preferably a Springer Spaniel.  I also own two horses, Mel and Jess. Jess is a 15 year old red dun Quarter Horse, who I trained myself. Mel is a 6 year old blue roan Quarter Horse, who like most 6 year olds of any species, needs a little more training. My horses take up quite a bit of my time, but I love every minute. I coach my little sister's Horse 4 H group and enjoy going to horse shows all summer long. In the past I competed in rodeo queen competitions where I learned a lot about public speaking. I spend my summers horseback riding, camping, and going on ATV rides. I also enjoy crafting and spend most of my winter doing that while I am cooped up in my house. 

During the summer we took vacations to St George, Jackson Hole, Bear Lake and the Uintas. My favorite vacations are my trips to Beaverdam, AZ to harvest pistachios and pecans from my grandparents orchard. 

I enjoy watching any movie with the actors Johnny Depp or Christian Bale. My favorite movies are Secret Window and Out of the Furnace. I love reading John Grisham books, my favorite being The Pelican Brief. I am also currently very addicted to a few TV series: The Middle, SOA, and Grey's Anatomy. As far as music, I have a wide range in taste. I enjoy rap, country, and rock and many genres in between. My favorite artists are: Yelawolf, Tech N9ne, Brantley Gilbert, and Skillet. 

I am very excited for this class!  

Richard J. Marsh

Hi friends.

That's a photograph of me on a horse. I know that you're jealous. I don't own a horse, but I was on vacation in Florida last week and my sister and I took a trail ride on horseback. She snapped that photo and I think it looks great.

My name is Richard J. Marsh. I am a communications major studying Public Relations and Advertising. I grew up in Murray, UT and until December I had lived in Salt Lake County almost my entire life. I finally decided to try something new, so I moved up here to Ogden to finish school. I still have quite a ways to go, but I'm doing my best.

I've always been interested in advertising, and the psychology behind it. I love the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell because of the sections on coke and margarine and how they were able to succeed through brilliant advertising.

I am the youngest child in a family of 4, and my parents moved to Florida a few years ago so I am on my own. I work as a bank teller and go to school as much as I can. I live with one roommate, and my dog Kanye. She is a 5 month old blue heeler puppy, and she's smart as a whip. She has been feeling a little neglected lately though, I think I'll try and take her for a walk tonight.

I served a mission in Houston, TX in 2008, and since then I have been just working and slowly going to school. My main hobby is music, I like to listen to it, play it, and watch other people play it live. I go to a lot of concerts. I've managed to make it all the way through my associates degree without any student loans.

If you're still reading this far, thanks for showing interest. I'm excited to take this class and learn more about editing.

Hi

Hello.  My name is Thomas Troy on the official roll, but I go by my middle name, Jake.  I was born in Boise, Idaho on October 20, 1990.  I am a junior student here at Weber State pursuing a degree in communications with an electronic media emphasis.

Before I was 1 year old my family moved to Ogden, Utah and that's where I remained until after high school.  I attended St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary kindergarten until 8th grade.  I then opted out of enrolling in St. Joseph’s High School to attend Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City.  

Growing up I played many sports but was best at soccer.  I played club soccer for La Roca FC and the U-17 and U-18 Real Salt Lake development academy squads.  I was recruited during many senior year of high school to play soccer in Los Angeles for California State University Northridge.  I played for the division 1 Big West school for 3 years.  I also played on the U-20 LA Galaxy development team during my sophomore year.  

Unfortunately, I had been suffering from a small fracture in my femur for over two years during my time at Northridge.  My pain and symptoms were misdiagnosed by University trainers and medical staff in my multiple efforts to resolve the discomfort.  Finally, I saw my own surgeon in Utah who concluded the pain and my subsequent skewed gait was from a small fracture of my femur at the knee which had grown much worse than necessary due to the misdiagnosis.  I underwent surgery to screw the fracture together via two titanium screws.  Nearly a year after my surgery I developed a new pain at the same surgery site and went to the doctor to discover a complication caused the fracture to heal improperly.  I was left with no options except to artificially re-fracture my femur in order to allow it to heal all over again, hopefully in a stronger fashion.  Ever since these two surgeries I’ve been forced to avoid running and subsequently ended my soccer career. Now I'm at Weber to finish my degree. Thankfully, my other primary passions are freeride/downhill mountain biking and whitewater kayaking, both of which are very low impact with regard to my femur.

If all goes as planned I’ll be done with school at the end of this school year.  After that I’d like to move to central California or Oregon because those are two beautiful areas and I really just hate the snow and it’d be nice to be somewhere I can bike and kayak year-round.  

The attached picture is me with my two older sisters. One is nearly done with medical school and the other works at the Nike world headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

Greetings

Greetings my fellow editors,

My name is Melissa Reese and I am a senior at Weber State I will graduate this spring with a degree in Communication, with an emphasis in PR and Advertising.  I have been married 11 years this December.  I have two great children.  My daughter Emma who is 9-years-old, and my son Liam who is 4-years-old.  Besides being a full time student, mom, and wife I am involved in student government at Weber.  I am 1 of 23 senators here at WSU.  My responsibility as a senator is to be the voice to my constituency.  If you have a problem at school you can come to me or any of the other senator.  We will do our best to help resolve the issue that is presented to us.  I have been told I am crazy to be involved in student government with how busy I am but I really enjoy what I am doing.

My hobbies include reading, biking, and playing with my kids and dogs.  I feel like I have a zoo in my home.  I have two dogs and a cat.  I was never allowed to have animals when I was a kid, so I have gone a little crazy with animals in my home.  An interesting fact about me is that I spent 10 years over in Japan.  I don't speak the language anymore, butt Japan will always have a special place in my heart.

With graduation drawing near it has forced me to decide what I want to do when I grow up.  For a good part of my life I  have done event planning and have loved it.  I would love to continue event planning after I graduate.  I am not sure if this will happen but I am cautiously optimistic about what I want to do after I graduate.

All though I would love to do event planning I am not sure if that is the direction I will take after graduation.  My son Liam has autism.  He was diagnosed a year ago.  He attends a special private school for children with autism.  When he started a year ago he was almost completely non-verbal.  Now he speaks in sentences and everyday is exciting in our home when Liam succeeds in one of his goals.  Since I have a child with autism I am heavily involved in the autism community.  I would like to be involved with autism groups here in Utah.   Utah has the highest per capita diagnosis of autism then any other state.  I would like to create better awareness to autism as well plan events to fundraise for these groups.

Confucius says "choose a job you love and you will never work another day in your life."  I would like to have this attitude when I enter the work force.  I am excited to be part of this class and cannot wait to learn from all of you.

Tyson Jex

Hello,

My name is Tyson Jex and I am a senior at Weber State. I will be, there is no more hoping, graduating next spring with my degree in Journalism. As much as I love writing for The Signpost and other newspapers, I don't know if I will be a journalist once I get my degree. I guess I have a year to figure that out. I enjoy writing probably because it lets me express myself and gives me a chance to tell a story in a way that makes people feel like they were there.
I have been married for almost two years and have lived every minute of it. My wife is currently in nursing school so life is pretty hectic but we enjoy hiking and watching movies together.

Something's that I really enjoy is running and sports. I grew up playing basketball and football but once I got to high school I was too small to play so I did the next best thing, run. I enjoy the local 5k just as much as I love running the longer stuff. I don't know if there is anything better than a nice long run on Saturday morning before the sun comes up. I am an avid Chicago Cubs and still have faith that they will win a World Series before I die. 

I am excited about this class due to the fact they people have always edited the stories that I have written. During that time I have wondered why the had taken some stuff out whole leaving other stuff in. I think it will help me out with any type of writing that I do as well. 

Not the Progressive Lady

Hello! My name is Flo Bravo and I am super excited to be in this class.  I have been married for two and a half years and we have a one-year-old little girl. I am a Theatre major with an emphasis in Acting and Directing.

Communication is actually my minor but I am thinking about turning it into a double major since I'm going to be in school a little longer than I anticipated. Besides, I have loved all of my courses and I always have a hard time choosing which ones to take because they all sound so interesting! I originally planned to graduate this coming spring, but things have changed since our daughter was born!

My favorite comedian is Louis CK and I am so excited to see him live next week at the Oddball Comedy Festival! Seriously, if you haven't heard this guy's standup, you are missing out. It's on Netflix. And while you're at it, you should watch Louie, his Emmy-award-winning sitcom on FX.  I also love listening to NPR. It's always on in my car and I stream it on my computer when I am at home. My favorite production is Radio West with Doug Fabrizio. He has the most interesting guests! Every time I listen to his show, I get a little jealous; how cool would it be to have his job?!

My husband and I are big football fans and we cannot wait for the NFL season to start! Anybody else counting down the days till kickoff?

Last spring, I was awarded the John A. and Telitha E. Lindquist Student Fellowship for Creative and Artistic Endeavors.  Associated Actors and Technicians (AAT), a student organization in the Department of Performing Arts, is co-producing a student production of Seminar, a contemporary comedy. I AM THE DIRECTOR! I am so incredibly excited for this opportunity and I hope you'll come see our show in December!

I look forward to getting to know everyone this semester!

Hey Everybody!

Hello everyone. My name is Jeff Horne and I am currently a junior here at Weber State. I am pursuing my degree in Communications with an emphasis on Public Relations and Advertising. After not going to school in 2013, it is good to be a full time student again. I am not sure what I want to do with my degree after I graduate, but I hope to figure that out as I get further into school.

When I am not in school I like to do anything outdoors, and I am also a big reader. I love to longboard, wake surf, and anything that includes climbing or swimming. I love the summer and Lake Powell is my favorite vacation spot. Stephen King is my favorite author and I have read several of his books. Two of my favorites from him are 11/22/63 and Misery. I don't like scary movies or anything else in that genre, but when I first read Misery I was hooked.

I look forward to an awesome semester with you all and meeting everyone at the study sessions! That is a picture of me when I thought just a mustache was cool. However, I have now been growing a beard now for 6 months, so I may look a little different at the study sessions!

 "I am Groot"

My name is Ryan and I am currently a senior at Weber State University.  I am getting my B.I.S. (Bachelor of Integrated Studies) degree in Web Design and Web Development.  I hope to one day design websites and develop web applications.  I chose web design and web development, because I like knowing how things on the internet work.  The job outlook is really good and the pay can be really good.  Right now I am trying to develop my skills and working on my portfolio.

I am a pretty quite person and keep to myself.  I usually don’t talk unless I have something to say or a question.  So talking about myself is really hard.  You can find out more about people by just listening and not saying anything.  When I do talk I am usually pretty blunt.  I say what’s on my mind.  Some people think that I am stuck up or rude, but that is just my personality.  I do have friends and go and do fun things, but I don’t mind being alone.  When I am with my family, friends or people I am comfortable with, I am more outgoing and talkative. 

In my spare time I like to rock climb, mountain bike, snow ski, edit video and watch movies.  I am currently climbing at The Front Climbing Gym on 20th street and Lincoln in Ogden.  I like to climb, because it makes you think about how to move and position your body to get to the top of the wall.  I think that this helps me think about how to do things in my everyday life the easiest and most efficient way.  It doesn’t hurt that it is a full body workout.  I haven’t been riding my mountain bike very much lately, just to busy.  I also haven’t skied in a while, because I need new ski’s and boots. I haven’t been editing any video, because I am trying to get more proficient at coding.  The last couple of movies I’ve watched were Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Guardians of the Galaxy is the best movie Marvel has made yet.  The new TNMT is as good as the third movie from the original trilogy, which isn’t saying much.  The graphics and fight scenes are better, but the story is terrible and the things they changed in the turtles origin story were bad.  The worst is how they tried to make the turtles look more human, now they just look creepy.  If your a fan of the original TMNT movies you will enjoy it, but it wont bring you back to your childhood.

I currently work at Kahuna Creations, which is a longboard (skateboard) company in Ogden.  I am the warehouse and shipping manager.  The company developed the “Kahuna Stick”. Which simulates Stand Up Paddle Surfing on the land.  In recent years Stand Up Paddle Surfing has become more popular, which helps the company sell more products.  We sell our products world wide.

Hello all!

Hey there everyone!  My name is Emily Hulse.  I apologize that my picture is from my wedding 4 years ago, I don't have a good current picture available at the moment.  I am a senior working toward a degree in Public Relations and Advertising, though I still have 4 semesters left including this one. I have two little boys, Ryker just turned 2 in July, and Calem was born May 31.  Additionally, my husband is in the final year of his graduate program at the University of Utah, working on a Master's degree in Entertainment Arts as a Video Game Producer.  Needless to say, I have my hands full.

I currently am a Public Affairs Specialist for the Utah Air National Guard, and will complete my inital 6-year contract in November, at which point I plan on leaving the military for the time being.  The uncertainty of where we will be living next year after my husband graduates left me to make the decision I felt best for my family, which was to be home with them.  My time with the ANG has been wonderful, and I hope that I can take the writing skills that I learned with them and apply them to this class.

In my spare time - what little I have - I enjoy watching cooking competition shows on the Food Network to get ideas for dinner, because let's face it, as college students, meals can get repetitive and tedious.  I also love Big Band Swing dancing, reading and traveling.  The next stop on my "bucket list" is Rome.

I look forward to a great semester and getting to know you all through your writing.

Hello Everybody

Hi Class,
     My name is Justin Langford but on all of our assignments you will probably see me as Kenneth Langford0.  I am a senior at Weber State and my degree is Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Training and Development.  I have been going to school off and on forever.  I have three semesters left so this is my final push to finish.  I have two little girls and my wife is expecting our first boy on September 24th.  My oldest is Nixon (4 years), and my youngest is Brixlee (2 years).  We think we our going to name our boy Knox but I don't know if I want to be the weird "X" family so I'm not totally sure.
     Right now I work at Meadow Gold Dairies in Salt Lake.  I have been there for 5 years.  It's a decent job but I work graveyards so I haven't slept well or felt good since I started.  Once I finish my degree I'm going to get serious about finding a different job.  I love to train and teach people so I really hope I can find a career in that field.  I really don't have any specific job in mind but I especially like to train new hires.  In my current department I train all the new people.  We really don't have a lot of turnover so I don't train a lot but when I get to I love it.
     As you can tell by my pic I love riding bikes.  Two and a half years ago I destroyed my knee on my BMX bike.  I was out of work and on crutches for three months.  I had three major surgeries and went through six months of physical therapy.  It took just about two years for my knee to start feeling somewhat normal.  Since I have gotten hurt I have become even more committed to riding.  As part of my therapy I bought a road bike, something I swore I would never do, and totally fell in love with it.  I loved it so much that I only rode my entry level bike for about six months and then sold it to buy a carbon fiber race bike.  My wife gets sick of me talking about ways I can come up with $8,500 for my ultimate dream bike (Specialized S-Works Tarmac).  Just to prove to myself that my knee was getting back to normal I trained and ran the Timpanogos Half Marathon in July.  I finished in 2:02:12.  It's not a super fast time but it was better than I thought I would do.   In addition to biking my family also loves to camp and shoot guns.
     I am looking forward to learning more about editing in this class.  When it comes to editing, spelling, and grammar I would say I'm decent but I'm definitely not great by any means.  Between my work schedule, my wife's work schedule, our two girls, and the new baby coming my time is always pushed.  I am a little nervous about keeping up with all the work each week but I actually think this will be a great semester.  I look forward to working with all of you

Thanks
Justin Langford

Hi Fellow Editors!

My name is Christa Lindley and I am a Communications Major with a focus in Public Relations and Advertising and an emphasis in Copy Writing. I love the major that I have chosen and feel that it really suites me.

I started my college career longer ago than I am willing to admit and have changed my path a few times. Originally I thought I wanted to major in Early Education and after a few jobs at some various day care facilities I decided working with children wasn’t for me. Then I thought about Marketing. Marketing seemed exciting and like a fun place to be in the business world but I was dreading some of the courses that came along with that degree. At some point, someone mentioned Public Relations to me and as I started to look over the classes I would take I realized that I was looking forward to most all of them. That seemed like a good sign to me so I started on my PR course and have honestly loved it.

Here are the top three reasons I would recommend a Communications Degree:

1.     The classes are interesting and inspire great discussion

2.     There are many great professors in the comm. department that know their stuff

3.     Comm. majors are fun and it’s a good department for making friends

I’m sure most of you landed in this course and are reading this because you are already Communication Majors so I hope you are loving your experience as much as I am. Even though I love it, I do have senioritis and am excited to graduate in the Spring.

Now that you know why I am in this class with you I’ll tell you a little bit more about myself. I grew up in North Ogden and graduated from Weber High School. I have two sisters and a niece that my entire family simply adores. My parents live in Layton and I live in South Ogden. I work about 5 minutes away from my house, which is really convenient.

I have two trues loves in my life – food and travel. I consider myself a foodie and love to find new restaurants. Sushi and Mexican food are my favorites. My favorite travel experience I have is a study abroad I went on in 2011 to Costa Rica. If the saying is true that “home is where the heart is” than my true home is Costa Rica. I loved the time that I spent there and dream about going back every day.

Thank you for reading about me. I look forward to this semester and reading your blog posts. :)

My name is Jordan Baker and I am a senior. I am an Organizational Communications major with an emphasis in Training and Development. I am married and have a sixth month old son. School is taking me a little longer than planned because it turns out that babies and husbands make life a little more complex! I enjoy hiking and camping with my family and really enjoy taking scenic drives.

I am originally from Colorado and spent my freshmen year at the University of Northern Colorado. I moved to Utah during my sophomore year to attend Weber through an undergraduate exchange program. I ended up meeting my husband and decided to stick around. After having my son we decided to move back to Colorado as a family to give something new a try after spending the last 5 years in Utah. So I am now back in Colorado and loving every minute of it. We live in Rye, Colorado which is a tiny mountain town. It is so small that it does not have a stop light. Rye is where I grew up and is home to 5 living generations of my family.

During my time in Utah I worked as a legal assistant for a family law attorney and also became a Notary Public. I learned a lot from my four years there. Editing legal documents and letters was a big part of my job. I really enjoyed playing with sentences and learning to address sensitive situations diplomatically through different forms of text. I am hoping, like most in this class, that this course will help me improve my editing skills and help me realize where my weaknesses are with grammar.

Natalie Slater - About Me

 (I decided to post a family picture because my kids are much cuter than me - so they make me look good!)

My name is Natalie Slater and I am a senior at WSU. I am considered a "non-traditional student" on campus because this is my fourth semester back after almost a 20 year break from college. I received my associate degree in 1992 and a lot has changed since then.  Weber State accepted all 95 of my credits from the other colleges that I had attended and I was excited to get back into school last year.  I am married with seven children. Yes, you read that right! I guess you could say that we are the "Brady Bunch," with a blended family but we have four girls and three boys instead, and no Alice!  We have been a family for eight years now with children ranging from 8 - 18 years old.  I didn't really have "spare time" to go back to school but always had a dream of doing it, so when my husband suggested it after our youngest started first grade, I thought it would be a great excuse to get out of cleaning and laundry all of the time.  I just completed my classes to complete my minor degree, which is in Psychology. My major is Organizational Communication.  Before having children, I worked for a large insurance company in the Human Resource Department and loved it.  I have my Human Resource Management Certification, Medical Terminology Training Certification, and Human Resource Law Certification.  Then I took an extended "break" just to be a mom.  Now that they are a little older, I decided to go back into a similar field of Human Resources, accomplishing it through the communications department.  I have always enjoyed doing training for employees and with having a degree and more education, I hope at some point to return to the workforce strong and better educated.  My life at home is never boring. We have had some wonderful memories as a family as we have gone on week-long adventures around the United States.  I love to camp, enjoy the outdoors, four-wheeling, and even some hiking.  I also love music.  I have played the piano consistently for 36 years and have been able to accompany for the junior high choirs.  I also love to sing and have performed with my daughter a number of times.  I am originally from Idaho, which is where most of my extended family still lives.  I am really looking forward to another year at WSU.  This has been an amazing experience and opportunity that I have had to continue my education.  It has been great for my children to see that you are never too old to receive an education.  I know that I have to study significantly more than they do and it has been good for them to see how important a college education is and that you have to study and work hard to achieve your goals.  It has also been a huge benefit to learn about the college system in order to help them soon be able to apply to college, along with work hard so they can earn scholarships. 

Welcome to COMM 3220 Editing

Welcome to COMM 3220 Editing at Weber State University. 

I hope this class will help you become the best writer and editor you can be whether your writing will appear online, on paper or on the air. As the textbook points out, it is more important than ever to know how to communicate crisply, clearly and powerfully in the dynamic, evolving, cross-platform, multimedia environment in which today's writers function.  

In this class, we will review some of the basics, plus focus on grammar and style rules you may have never understood or even thought about. I know you'll be a better writer and editor at the end if you put some time and attention toward this class. I promise a fun and educational experience.

To help you through the class, I will post modules complete with a weekly to-do list every Monday at 8 a.m. You will have until midnight Sunday to complete your work for the week. I have supplemented materials with narrated PowerPoint slides. I hope you will download the Wimba wizard and listen and learn. I also commit to three in-person test reviews so mark your calendars and try to attend. It's not required, but you'll likely do better on the tests if you attend. 

Even though this is an online class, I am also willing to answer your questions in person. As you may know, I am chair of the Department of Communication at Weber State so I am in my office Monday through Thursday and often on Fridays. The best way to reach me is through email. Occasionally, I take a weekend off from email so make sure you get your questions answered by Friday afternoon. 

If you encounter any issues with something in Canvas, please let me know right away so I can fix the problem for everyone, but I am usually pretty careful. Read the syllabus carefully so that you understand the plan for the semester. Take a look at how I have things organized in Canvas, but your best bet is to use Modules. Items are generally located in multiple places. 

Thank you for taking my class and here's a little about me.

Before coming to teach at Weber State University 20 years ago, I worked for 18 years as a print journalist. I worked for three daily newspapers—the Standard-Examiner, The Herald Journal and the Colorado Springs Sun—two different times each. A few of the job titles I held were reporter, news editor, assistant city editor, graphics editor and weekend editor. I also taught briefly at the University of Utah and in Westminster College’s graduate program. At WSU, I primarily teach classes required in the journalism and public relations concentrations. I also teach in the Honors Department and advised the student newspaper, The Signpost, for six years. I served as the first director of the new Master of Professional Communication program for two years. Two years ago I was named chair of the Department of Communication. Since becoming a college professor, I have taken frequent jobs as a freelance editor. I have published one book (“Visualizing Web Design”), edited a book about Hot Rod Hundley, numerous websites for high-tech clients, news releases and media packets for public relations firms, and print advertisements. A part of my life is also spent as a communication researcher. I have published a number of academic journal articles and book chapters since coming to WSU. I consider editing my strength and am always excited to teach this class.